Archive for July, 2015

The defending champions in the under 12 World Cup have been defeated. Venezuela also comes back to vanquish a still celebrating Nicaragua, who had beaten the powerful Cubans the day before. Cuba knocks Japan out of any championship hope and can still be eligible for a championship run with a victory over the United States. The events spin out in unexpected fashion in Taiwan like a mystery novel, with a number of characters coming forward to bring his team closer to victory. The only certainty is Taiwan will be in the championship. Who they will play is still a mystery.

Taiwan 11 United States 6

Pitching has been a United States strong suit. They lead all teams with a 1.06 ERA. Taiwan came into the game number one in hitting with a batting average of .439. They lead all the teams in runs scored with 67. The hitting won out in this game. Both teams bats were alive in the first two innings with the game tied 5-5. It was Taiwan who broke out at the end, scoring four runs in the top of the sixth to break the game wide open. There were 6,500 celebratory fans after the game. The blue streamers must have been flying.

Carson McKinney could not get out of the first inning. He retired the first hitter on a ground out, gave up a double to Chun Yang, then walked the next four hitters. Thomas Dilandri replaced McKinney, threw a wild pitch to score the third run, walked the next batter to load the bases again and gave up an RBI single to Chun-Yi Yeh to make it 4-0.

The United States also took advantage of the wildness of Hao-En Chen, who also could not survive past the first inning, giving up two walks, two wild pitches and a two run single to Ryan Clifford and an RBI single to Ryan Reuter to chase him from the game. Fortunately for the statisticians the offenses slowed down a bit after that (or the pitching showed a little more control). Taiwan scored a run in the top of the second and Zachary Torres hit a two run homer in the bottom frame to make it 5-5 after two.

Taiwan ran away with the game in the top of the sixth on three straight singles to send Daniel Corona to the showers. Chang-Chou Li drove in two runs with a pinch hit two run double to extend the Taiwan lead to 10-6. Taiwan is in the championship game. The United States must beat Cuba to survive or hope to get in via a tie breaker.

Cuba 5 Japan 2

Cuba got strong relief pitching from Yanquiel Fernandez to bounce back with a win over Japan. Yanquiel worked three plus innings and did not allow a run (though an inherited runner scored on his balk). He struck out seven of the 13 hitters he faced and even contributed an RBI single in the three run third that put Cuba ahead for good. Cuba needs to beat the United States in their last game to have a chance to compete for the championship.

Venezuela 9 Nicaragua 3

Venezuela may be out of a championship run but they have not quit playing. A single by Jeremy Rivas in the top of the sixth and a two base error to allow him to advance to third set up the game tying single from Luis Medina to send the game into extra innings. In the third extra inning (ninth inning) Venezuela erupted for eight runs, aided by six walks from Nicaraguan pitchers and two wild pitches. If not for the error in the sixth Lesther Medrano may have pitched a complete game shutout. He worked seven innings. Nicaragua had a runner thrown out at home in the bottom of the seventh, denying Medrano with an opportunity to pick up the win. Nicaragua needs to beat Japan to be eligible for any play off run. If Cuba beats the United States and they beat Taiwan, they are in by virtue of their win over Cuba. Taiwan really has nothing to play for but pride.

It appears only the top three teams advanced to the second round in the 12 and under World Cup. The first day saw a pretty big upset from the surprise team from the tournament. The United States and Taiwan continue their undefeated string.

Nicaragua 4 Cuba 0

Elian Rayo worked five innings and only allowed one hit while striking out 9 Cubans. Nicaragua only got three hits, scoring their first two runs in the opening frame without benefit of a hit. Two walks and two errors by pitcher Oscar Pinera gave Nicaragua an early 2-0 lead. Elian Rayo then helped his cause in the third with an RBI double after another Cuban error put a runner on first in the third inning. Nicaragua’s last run was scored in the fourth on a walk, hit by pitch and ground out. Cuba got their lone hit off Rayo in the second inning. Cuba rallied in the sixth with two hits off reliever Emilio Rostran but came up short.

United States 10 Venezuela 2

The United States scored a run in every inning while the Venezuelans could not cross the plate in three plus innings thrown by Nicholas Kurtz. Jack Ryan scored three runs in the rout. He had the only extra base hit in the game, a double in the second that drove in two. Venezuela is eliminated for any opportunity to compete for a championship game with an 0-3 record.

Taiwan 7 Japan 3

A mild upset by Taiwan over the number one ranked country in the game of baseball. Japan has already lost to the United States and Nicaragua and this loss to Taiwan virtually eliminates them from any thought of a championship game. Japan jumped to an early 3-0 lead, but Naoki Ito tired in the fourth for Japan, Tzu-En Tung slapping a one out two run single up the middle to pull Taiwan to within one. Ping-En Woo closed out a five run fifth with a two run homer.

The first round of the 12 and under World Cup has ended and there have been no real surprises of the teams who advanced.

United States 12 France 1

France jumped to an early 1-0 lead with a run in the opening frame. The lead did not last long with the United States countering with two runs in the bottom frame. The United States exploded for 10 runs in the fourth to put the game away. Zachary Torres led the fleet afoot United States team with three of their 12 stolen bases in the game. Collin Rueter went wild with a 3 for 3 day with three RBIs. The United States has advanced to the second round while France is eliminated.

Taiwan 5 Venezuela 2

Taiwan advanced as the second undefeated team in the tournament. Venezuelan starter Ronier Sanchez shut out Taiwan for the first three innings. Taiwan tied it in the fourth, Hao-Yu Lee driving in two runs with a single. Two Venezuelan errors made both runs unearned. Taiwan scored three more in the fifth to break the tie and pull away from the game, Hsiang Chang doubling down the right field line for two runs. Three walks in the inning helped Taiwan break the tie.

Cuba 5 South Korea 0

Ernesto Cabrera was one out away from a complete game shutout, limiting South Korea to just one hit, a double in the sixth inning. Christopher Perez closed out the scoring with a solo shot in the fifth. Alejandro Zamora scored twice and Arturo Mendoza drove in two runs with a single in the opening frame and a ground out fielder’s choice in the third.

Japan 2 Mexico 1

Japan stayed alive for the second round of the tournament narrowly defeating Mexico. Rintaro Imamura hit a walk off solo shot in the bottom of the sixth to end the game. Imamura walked in the second inning and scored the first run for Japan.

Nicaragua 17 Australia 2

Nicaragua slugged four home runs in their slaughter of Australia, Elian Rayo slugging two for four runs driven in. Lesther Medrano and Luis Romero also went deep for Nicaragua. Nine of the 17 hits for Nicaragua went for extra bases.

Brazil 16 Russia 2

Andrew Sato stole five bases in a 3 for 4 day to score three runs and lead Brazil to an easy victory. Silva Tiburtino was a homerun shy of the cycle driving in three runs.

The four teams advancing from Group A are Taiwan (5-0), Cuba (4-1), Venezuela (3-2) and South Korea (2-3). The two teams not advancing are Brazil (1-4) and Russia (0-5).

The four teams advancing from Group B are United States (5-0), Nicaragua (4-1), Japan (3-2) and Mexico (2-3). The two teams not advancing are Australia (1-4) and France (0-5).

Nicaragua pulled off a big win over Mexico to take the upper hand in their bid for second place in pool play. Fidel Loaisiga limited Mexico to one unearned run in five innings. His bat also spoke big with an RBI single in the third and an RBI double in the fifth. Lesther Medrano had a perfect 3 for 3 day to score twice. Leadoff hitter Pedro Hernandez drove in all the runs for Mexico with an RBI double in the fifth and a three run double in the sixth. With the tying run at the plate in the sixth Nicaragua called on Olston Rayo to get the final two outs to close out the game.

Venezuela 4 South Korea 3

Venezuela rallied for two runs in the bottom of the sixth to knock Korea to 2-2. Mario Melendez smoked a double to right to tie the game and Beycker Barroso laced a walk off single into right center to give Venezuela the victory and improve their record to 3-1. South Korea jumped on Iverson Espinosa for three runs in the first, Sung-Woo Kim driving in the first run with a double and Jun-Woo Shin driving in two with a double. Shin finished the day 3 for 3. Despite the poor start Espinosa was able to shut down South Korea through the fourth inning.

Cuba 4 Brazil 1

Cuba improved to 3-1 but struggled to beat the winless Brazil. Felix Arronde came to play throwing five innings of three hit one run ball. He also contributed a two run single in the second inning that proved to be the difference in the game.

United States 13 Australia 1

The United States remained undefeated with their rout over 1-3 Australia. Riley Yeatman shut down the United States bats for two innings, but a seven run third put the game out of reach. A wild pitch scored the first run but a two run single from Cooper Kinney began the onslaught. Nicholas Kurtz later hit a two run homer in the inning. A five run fifth shortened the game to five innings, Christopher Katz driving in three runs with a double.

Japan 21 France 0

Japan threw five almost perfect innings against a French team, scoring 11 in the fifth to shorten the game to five innings. Asagiro Shina went the first two innings, striking out four of the six hitters he faced and Rintaro Imamura worked the last three, striking out five of the ten hitters he faced. He hit a batter in the sixth to ruin the perfect game. Naoki Ito stole four of the ten bases the Japanese team pilfered off France. Ito scored three times, driving in two on a 3 for 4 day. Tokiharu Nishioka drove in four runs to stoke the offense.

Taiwan 14 Russia 0

Taiwan remained undefeated with their five inning shortened game over Russia.

Chad Pinder smashed four hits yesterday to extend his hitting streak to 18 games. He hit his 20th double and 10th homerun, driving in five runs in the game. During the 18 game hitting streak (30-73) the Athletics 2013 second round supplemental pick has driven in 19 runs with three homeruns.

Carlos Munoz of the Pirates hit three homeruns in one game, driving in four runs and scoring four runs. In an eight game hitting streak Carlos is 21-40 with five homeruns and 14 RBIs. He is hitting .396.

The Blue Jays Dalton Pompey got promoted to AAA after hitting .351 at AA. He has gotten a hit in all nine of his AAA games since his promotion, but a 5 for 6 day bumped that average up to .273. He is now hitting .432 in the nine games with a 7/2 walk to whiff ratio raising his OBA to .523. With the Blue Jays trying to get in the playoff run they could use a bat like that in their outfield. Dalton only hit .193 earlier this year in about 90 major league at bats.

The Padres Travis Jankowski was also recently promoted to AAA. In four games he is 8 for 16 with three doubles and five runs driven in. Travis hit .316 with 23 stolen bases in 73 games with a 36/40 walk to whiff ratio in AA.

The Rays Patrick Leonard had a 4 for 5 game with his sixth homerun to extend his hitting streak to four games. He is now hitting .373 for the month of July. The 2011 fifth round pick slugged 13 homeruns last year.

The Phillies 2015 fourth round pick Kyle Martin had a perfect 4 for 4 day to raise his average to .367. The first baseman has hit for some power with two homeruns.

Another hot Athletic hitter is Shane Conlon with a 4 for 5 day, hitting his first two triples of the year, not bad for a first baseman. Shane has five multiple hit games in his last seven games (16-32) with eight runs driven in. Shane was a 34th round pick of the 2015 draft and at 23 may be a bit old for Rookie ball.

Another rookie ball player, the Royals Luke Willis had a perfect 4 for 4 day to put his average at .333. Like Conlon, Luke was a late round pick (30th) in 2015. For Luke it is his second perfect 4 for 4 game this year.

The Rockies Jordan Patterson had a perfect 3 for 3 day in his ninth game of AA ball. He stole three bases and is now hitting .367 with four consecutive multiple hit games.

The Pirates J.T. Brubaker did not give up his first hit until the sixth inning. The six shutout innings give him 11 over two games. During that time he has only give up three hits while striking out nine. Brubaker was a 2015 sixth round pick.

The Astros got four innings of two hit shutout ball from 2015 draft pick Alex Winkelman. He struck out seven in his relief outing.

The United States finished undefeated in the tournament after their 11-3 swamping of Canada in the championship game. The United States jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the opening frame. Sarah Hudek got in trouble in the fourth giving up three runs, but Stacy Piagno retired the last two hitters in the fourth to keep the lead at 5-3 and held the Canadian bats scoreless for the remainder of the game.

Sarah Hudek and Anna Kimbrell each drove in three runs for the United States. Samantha Cobb crossed the plate three times.

Venezuela won the bronze medal. You can review the results of the game here:

The Netherlands had beaten Cuba twice in the tournament. We’ve seen Cuba be very resilient, almost being eliminated from the Series del Caribe before winning that tournament. They proved resilient again in this tournament winning the championship game 5-3 with Frank Montieth limiting the Dutch bats to just two runs in five plus innings. Miguel Lahera retired four of the five hitters he faced to pick up the save, striking out the last hitter in the eighth with runners on second and third.

Rob Cordemans got the start for the Netherlands and Lourdes Gourriel greeted his first pitch for a double to center. It would lead to the first run for Cuba. Cuba broke it open with three runs on four hits in the fourth. Gourriel led off the fifth with a homerun to give Cuba a 5-1 lead. Cordemans lasted six innings but gave up five runs and nine hits in the loss.

The Netherlands had their opportunities, bunching together 10 hits and five walks. They stranded a runner on base in each inning, totaling 13 runners left on base. The Netherlands stranded runners on second and third with just one out when the next two hitters struck out.

Taiwan was able to score a run in the extra inning, Cuba was not. Cuba had runners on second and third with no outs and bases loaded with one out and failed to score. Taiwan lost an opportunity for a run when the runner placed on second was thrown out at home after a single to right field. The runners moved up on the throw and scored when Cheng singled to left field in his first at bat of the game. Chun Yang boomed a big two run homer in the first for Taiwan to give them an early 2-0 lead. Yanquiel Fernandez hit a solo shot in the second to close the lead to 2-1. Those were the last homeruns of the day. Cuba had taken a 5-4 lead with a run in the sixth but Taiwan tied it at 5-5 on a Chang double and a Y. Lin single.

United States 4 Mexico 2

The United States scored early with two homeruns. Jack Ryan hit his second homerun of the tournament, a two run shot to right field in the first inning. Cody Schrier added a two run homer in the second inning. Carson McKinney came on in relief with one out in the third inning and held Mexico to just one hit to the first hitter he faced, then quieted their bats for the remainder of the game to get the win. Servin drove in both runs for Mexico with a sacrifice fly in the first and a bases loaded ground out in the third.

Korea 3 Brazil 0

Chan-Jin Park shut down Brazil on four hits. Pedro Lemes limited the Koreans to three hits, but his defense let him down, committing two crucial errors to allow three unearned runs to score.

Australia 8 France 4

Australia won this battle of two winless teams. Australia scored early with seven runs in the first three innings, James Nati scoring three of the eight runs scored by Australia. Nati also was one out from pitching a complete game, two errors by his defense gifting France two runs in the final frame and preventing a complete game win for Nati.

Venezuela 10 Russia 2

Russia finally scored a run, but Venezuela was already up 4-0 when Russia scored. Erick Caripa smoked a three run homer into centerfield in the second inning to give Venezuela the early 3-0 lead. Venezuela muscled up for the game with six of their eight hits going for extra bases (five doubles and one homerun).

Nicaragua 5 Japan 1

Nicaragua pulled a big upset with their win. The second loss by Japan may knock them out of the playoffs, with France and Mexico still on the schedule. Cristhian Moreno hit a solo shot in the fourth to give Nicaragua an early 1-0 lead. Japan tied it in the bottom frame on singles by Naoki Ito and Kota Shoji. Nicaragua broke the game open in the sixth on two runs singles by Loaisiga and Bustillo.

Cuba hopes the third time is the charm as they will face the Netherlands for the championship after their 4-3 win over Curacao. Cuba has lost their first two games against the Dutch 8-4 and 12-7. Down 2-1 in the fifth against Curacao Yasiel Santoya tied the game with a single and Yurisbel Gracial rammed a double to drive in the go ahead run. Yoalkis Cruz went seven innings to get the win, coughing up three runs on eight hits. Miguel Lahera worked the ninth to pick up the save, his second of the tournament.